MULTIEFFORT – a step towards improving forest ecosystem services in Karelia
People living in the Karelia region on both sides of the Finnish-Russian border greatly depend on forest and forest ecosystem services. Despite this, the role forest ecosystem services play in the livelihoods of people and their business opportunities has not been fully recognised. Launched in October 2012, MULTIEFFORT cooperation between Finland and Russia aims to address this issue.
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Landscape ecological planning is employed to harness all ecosystem services in Russian natural forests. Photo: Aleksandr Gladyshev |
The project develops landscape ecological planning and assesses forest ecosystem services and their financial value, along with studying the obstacles and limitations to the sustainable use of forests. These activities are aimed at creating better marketing opportunities for forest provisioning services (berries, mushrooms, herbs and other collectable goods) in the future, while improving the management of forest regulating services (climate change, prevention and control of forest fires and storm damage, carbon sequestration). Within the project, a forest fire ignition and fire risk classification developed in Finland will be applied to Russia, a forest fire extinguishing course will be organised, and the impact of various natural disturbances and forest management treatments on forest carbon cycling will be examined.
The project group comprises Metla, the Forest Research Institute of Karelian Research Centre of Russian Academy of Science, Pellervo Economic Research PTT, Federal State Budget-funded Institution National Park “Vodlozersky”, North Karelia Biosphere Reserve, Karelian State Pedagogical Academy, the forest company Ladenso and Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University.
The project runs until the end of 2014 and its total budget is EUR 718,008. The main source of financing is the Karelia ENPI CBC Programme, a cross-border cooperation programme implemented in the regions of Kainuu, North Karelia and North Ostrobothnia in Finland and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. Its objective is to increase well-being in the programme region through cross-border cooperation. The programme is funded by the European Union, the Russian Federation and Finland.
Further information
- Researcher Ekaterina Shorokhova, tel. +358 29 532 2408, ekaterina.shorokhova(a)metla.fi
- MULTIEFFORT